Utbenat: Datadriven

Introduction

Sebastian:‍

Picture yourself out on a run. You are well into the trail and you have just reached that notorious killer hill. Today you feel invincible. Your legs feel light, the music is pumping in your headphones and the endorphins are flowing. Your brain is shouting: "Just go! Sprint up the hill, we're setting a record today!" Your gut tells you that you are in the best shape of your life.

But you glance down at your heart rate monitor. The numbers are glowing an angry red. 189 beats per minute. You are already in zone 5. Your heart is working flat out, far above what is normal for you at the bottom of a hill. If you listen to the feeling and sprint now, you will probably hit the wall halfway up. You will get lactic acid up to your ears and have to walk the rest of the way home.

In that second, you face a choice. Do you trust the rush you feel in your body? Or do you trust the data telling you to slow down so you can make it all the way? It is in that millisecond, in the glance at your wrist, that the difference between guessing and knowing is decided.

What does it actually mean to be data-driven?

Sebastian:

Today we are going to talk about that glance at the wrist. We are going to talk about being data-driven. It is a word many leadership teams throw around, sometimes taken to mean that computers should decide everything. But at heart it is about culture, and about how we help each other make wiser decisions. It is about using facts to calibrate our gut feeling.

Because a common misconception is that data-driven means we should stop thinking for ourselves. That we should become slaves to the algorithms. That is completely wrong. The world is too complex to run on autopilot. We still need all the experience, intuition and creativity that exists in the business, with our colleagues.

Out on the trail, we do not stop running altogether because we looked at the watch. We do not stop wanting to reach the top. We use the data to adjust our decisions. You can drop the pace by ten percent so you can hold it all the way. Or maybe you take a different route.

Being data-driven is about moving from a situation where we think we are making the right decision, to one where we know we are giving ourselves the best odds. We want to calibrate our inner compass against reality. Just one decision made on better grounds can make a big difference to the bottom line.

Health-driven, not equipment-driven

Sebastian:

So how do you become data-driven? Many companies treat this as a technical installation. "If we buy this new analytics platform, we'll be data-driven." Well, no, that is not quite how it works. To explain it, let us compare it to wanting to become health-driven.

Imagine you decide to live healthier. Do you buy an annual gym membership, new custom-moulded and eye-wateringly expensive running shoes, the latest in performance training gear, and hire a running coach who has trained elite athletes, before you have even taken your first walk? No. Because you know that health does not sit in the equipment. It sits in the hundreds of small choices you make every day. Do I take the stairs or the lift? Do I eat the apple or the bun?

A lot of companies try to buy their way to marathon-ready through expensive IT projects, but they forget to build the everyday habits. Becoming data-driven is not about systems. It is about the culture of asking, in every small meeting: "What data do we have? What do the numbers say?" before we decide.

The HiPPO effect: when data challenges power

Sebastian:

So why is this so hard? One factor to take into account, and it is a very human one, is that data often challenges power. In many meeting rooms, what rules is what is called a HiPPO: the Highest Paid Person's Opinion.

The boss might have a feeling that a certain campaign is going to be a hit. After all, he has always been right before. So when a junior analyst raises their hand and says, "But the data from the test group shows nobody likes this idea," it gets uncomfortable.

Being genuinely data-driven means daring to let the heart rate monitor weigh as heavily as the boss's feeling. That takes courage. It takes a culture where the truth is not overwritten by the hierarchy. Where everyone works together and trusts that everyone is acting in the company's best interest, without any prestige attached to being right.

Finding the data behind the gut feeling

Sebastian:

I think that if we are going to succeed with this, we need to build a culture where we dare to stop and ask: "What is my gut feeling actually based on? Can we find data that confirms or challenges what I am feeling?"

The nice thing about this mindset is that we often discover the gut feeling was right after all, but now we have numbers that make it easier to explain to others why we should take a certain path. It creates confidence across the whole organisation when we can communicate more effectively with each other about the decisions being made.

And if everyone surfaces why they believe in a decision, you can challenge the data without challenging the person.

Start with a snowball

Sebastian:

So how do we begin? Many people imagine you have to launch enormous change programmes to become data-driven. But our experience is that the most successful journeys start considerably smaller. Instead of trying to change everything at once, it is about finding a place where we can create measurable value fairly quickly. We want to find those small initiatives that show us, and our colleagues, that this way of working actually works.

Imagine you are building a snowman. You do not start by trying to squeeze together all the snow on the entire lawn. You start by forming a small, firm core between your hands. Once that core is solid, you can start rolling it in the snow, and with every turn it gets bigger and stronger.

In your business, this means finding one specific problem. Something that chafes a little in everyday work. It could be anything from "Which type of customer service cases take us longest to resolve?" to seeing whether we can predict when a machine in production needs servicing, before it breaks down.

How you can start on Monday

Sebastian:

Sit down with your team and identify one single question that you sometimes discuss, but where today you go largely on instinct. Instead of asking "What data do we have?", ask: "What data would we need to feel more confident when making this decision?"

Once you have found it, focus purely on producing and refining exactly that. When you notice that it helps you make better decisions and makes communication easier, you have created your first little snowball.

Becoming data-driven is not about replacing experienced people with algorithms. It is about giving smart people the right tools to succeed even better.

Summary

Sebastian:

To sum up: being data-driven is about using data to calibrate, strengthen and challenge our lived experience. It is a culture journey that begins with small, concrete steps that create real value. Start looking for your first snowball and improve your decision-making one step at a time.

Thank you for listening to today's episode of Utbenat with me, Sebastian Mildgrim. Do you want to talk more about today's topic, or just talk data? Get in touch. You will find us on LinkedIn, or contact us through our website, fiwe.se. See you next time, and take care out there!

You've been listening to Syntra, a podcast from Fiwe.